Vacation - St. John's

Sorry in advance for the long post....this is the recap of our entire week's vacation....instead of doing separate posts for the various activities that we did throughout the week. Grab a beverage and enjoy!

Jon and I took our 2nd kid-free vacation in as many years..... (well, I guess we weren't entirely kid-free, since I'm 5 months pregnant).... We went with two other couples to St. John in the US Virgin Islands. Josh & Danila were one of the couples....the other was John & Sarah Gauger -- they are really good friends of Josh & Danila, but we didn't know them very well prior to vacation. Fortunately, we all got along really well and had a great time.

We were cleared to leave town by my doctor the day before vacation - just to be safe we had everything checked out before we headed out. I didn't have any restrictions placed on me other than to take it easy and to avoid the tap water when out in town. Otherwise, I was free to do anything I wanted, which was great.

Here are a sampling of pictures from our trip.....Since we were at beaches snorkeling a lot, we didn't take a camera every day, or only one couple would take their camera. I haven't gotten pictures from everyone yet, so these are just pictures from our camera.

Our condo....it was really nice, found on http://www.vrbo.com/!

The owners left a lot of information for us on places to see and things to do. Unfortunately, on our first day we read that we could take a 5 minute walk to Honeymoon Beach....well, it was actually a 5 minute walk to the trailhead where we could then hike .8 miles to Honeymoon Beach. None of us were really prepared for the hike, but we did have water. Thank goodness we didn't bring much else. I didn't bring fins to snorkel that day, and after the hike, I didn't last long snorkeling in reef shoes. I was just too tired. When it came time for lunch, we walked to a resort that wasn't too far away. We had some sandwiches and $120 later we were paying and heading out....yep, that was one expensive lunch, but we later discovered, it wasn't too out of the ordinary for the island. The guys decided that due to chaffing they were going to swim back to our beach spot. It was FAR. I can't believe they made it, but they did. They were exhausted when they finished, but still found the energy to snorkel more! When we were done for the day, we all decided there was no way we could hike back, so we walked back to the resort and took a cab. Definitely a fun day, but we had 6 people who were ready to go to bed early that night!

The condo had a pool and workout facility. Some dedicated people in our group actually used the workout facility, but the rest of us just used the pool!

We had to take a ferry to get to St. John from St. Thomas (where we flew in). Unfortunately, on our first day we took a $15 cab ride to our condo...despite it being about a 5 minute walk from the port. We asked a guy at the dock (shown above from the condo's balcony) how to get to Grande Bay and we were ushered to a cab...taken to the Westin in the middle of the island, and then taken pretty much back to the port : ) LOVELY. Meanwhile, Josh & Danila ran down to meet us, but we were already in the cab and likely couldn't see them while we were waiting for another couple to load up their stuff. They assumed they'd missed us and didn't walk up the line of cabs up the street.... important lesson learned about having an idea of where you're going when you arrive! Condo balcony view at sunset We celebrated John Gauger's 30th birthday while we were on vacation. We went to Rhumb Lines, which John declared to have the best key lime pie on the island. (This became a running joke after he had another key lime at another place that he declared too cold/frozen, which he brought up a number of times!)

Danila & SarahHappy Birthday John!!

On Sunday, we took a ferry to the British Virgin Islands. We'd heard that "The Baths" on Virgin Gorda were something that we had to see. It was absolutely wonderful there, but since I don't have any pictures, you'll have to click the link to get an idea of what it looked like. It was a long ferry ride from the USVI, but we had a wonderful lunch overlooking the Baths and then headed down the path to the beach. The rock formations were truly amazing and we had some great snorkeling. I think everyone except the pregnant lady did some cliff jumping too. It was a fun way to spend the day, but we were certainly exhausted when we were done. I'm very glad we took the side trip.

On Monday, the girls went to St. Thomas to go shopping. I tagged along even though I'm not much of a shopper. I'm so "not" a shopper that I was the only one whose husband gave her an entirely unlimited budget of "if you see something you want, just get it" when we went to this jewelry shopping haven. I was also the only one who purchased absolutely nothing (other than lunch and a snack) while over there. Go figure. (I think Jon knows me well!)

After we finished shopping, we planned to take the ferry from Charlotte Amalie so we could get back to watch the St. John Carnival parade, but when we went up to the dock the guys there told us that they were only running them from Red Hook (a 20-minute cab ride to the other side of the island). I'm sure it was for efficiency to get more people over to St. John faster (b/c that ferry ride was shorter), but there were ABSOLUTELY NO signs posted anywhere saying there were no ferries from Charlotte Amalie - otherwise we would have planned differently.... So, after running in the rain to get the "ferry" that wasn't, the guy told us we could either take a cab for $30 or a "safari" for $6. We were totally confused and not following him until he finally got us to understand that the safari was the local cab. It would take us to the same place (just not via the scenic tourist highway) in about the same amount of time. So, all of us girls walked to the safari stop and got aboard the next one that stopped. We ended up being the only white people on the safari.....and at every stop the "bus" made, people stared at us like crazy. The picture below is our view from the last row -- basically an open-air "bus" of sorts.

Unfortunately, it started to downpour (again) while we were making our way to Red Hook....so we got drenched while riding! Sarah made the best of it! Danila not only got wet, but ended up sitting in a puddle as well. Our ride was our special adventure of the trip!
We made it back to St. John to watch the end of the Carnival Parade. Carnival on St. John is a huge party - it runs for almost a week, celebrating their Emancipation Day as well as the 4th of July, and culminating in a parade. It is probably a little like a Mardi Gras parade. As a parent, there were plenty of "floats" or groups that I wouldn't want my kids to see. But, it was fun to watch a little. Carnival was going on the first few days of our trip and ended every night with concerts in this town square (formerly a parking lot). They had little booths around the perimeter for food and drink, and a big stage for bands to play....which meant a lot of VERY LOUD music until about 3am every night. Fortunately for me, I can sleep through anything, but I think some of the other people were really happy to see the parade mark the end of Carnival!
After the Carnival was over, we were actually able to rent a car (since during Carnival there were none available on the island), and get out and see the island a little more. It is so beautiful there!! About 2/3 of the park is a national forest, so once the Carnival "party" was over, the pace really slowed down. Maho Bay

Jon & me overlooking Maho Bay

We went to Maho Bay one day when we weren't able to find parking at "Trunk Bay," one of the "must see" places on St. John. Maho Bay ended up being a great place to go! We first went up near these old sugar plantation ruins and started down this "Jeep only" path. Unfortunately, we didn't realize when the "Jeep only" path ended and we were on the "walking only" path to a snorkeling spot. By the time we realized that the Jeep wouldn't make it around to where we had to go, the guys had to get out and direct John as he backed the Jeep back to a "parking area".....we were inches from a small drop-off into the water on one side and the hill on the other...made for an interesting way to start the day! We had to walk a little under a mile to get to were we were going to snorkel and there were LOTS of mosquitoes out. I had to take a water break about 1/2 way to our snorkel spot, but everyone was good about it. Once we started snorkeling (I was wearing fins to keep from tiring - the others just wore reef shoes) it was amazing. There was a giant field of starfish where the starfish were literally 12+ inches across. I think some may have been 18 inches. They were huge and we saw some great fish and coral. After about 30-45 minutes I was tired and spent some time resting on a beachy area, but the others snorkeled until it looked like it might rain.

After lunch, we went to the Maho Bay beach and got to see TONS of sea turtles. The guys snorkeled for what seemed like forever, and Josh even saw a small shark. The guys found a baby octopus and brought it back for us girls to see....although it suctioned to John Gauger, which he declared to hurt! It was a great day, even though not as planned.

On another day we took the Jeep to the other side of the island to Skinny Legs - a burger joint the owner of our condo told us to check out. We were low on gas when we headed over, but all of the brochures said there were two gas stations on the island - one where we were, and the other over near Skinny Legs. Well.....when we pulled up, the gas station was boarded up and a local told us that it had been closed for over 3 months because the tanker that brought the gas over was declared "not seaworthy" recently. She told the guys to go back and get gas immediately and then come back. So, John & Josh went to get gas, while Jon stayed with the girls at the restaurant/shop area. We did have some great burgers and John & Josh actually made it to get gas without running out of gas in the mountains!

Trunk BayThe view as you enter the Trunk Bay beach.....

Trunk Bay is part of a national park, so you have to pay to visit it. It was our last big beach day, and it was really nice. They have an underwater snorkel trail there describing some of the things you see. I lasted the longest snorkeling here because there was so much to see!

The women were really the photographers for the entire trip! Josh & Jon getting ready to head out

The view from the beach at Trunk Bay

We got there early enough in the morning that we practically had the beach to ourselves!

We left around lunchtime in another case of "there were no signs"....We all put in orders at the little beach burger shop - having seen a credit card reader at the cash register with the green light on and no "cash only" (which are very common) signs. However, after all 6 of us put in orders, John & Sarah went up to pay for theirs and were told "cash only." We didn't have NEARLY enough cash for all of us to eat, so we had to tell them we couldn't take any of the food. The lady working wasn't happy and said we were trying to make trouble....we were trying to figure out why there were no signs....and ultimately, some people who showed up in line behind us saw what was happening and ordered up most of our food after we told them what we'd ordered.

St. John was notorious for "cash only" signs, but they were usually out. Of course, some "cash only" places had people who couldn't make change with cash -- like Thomas the smoothie guy. I once gave him a $20 for two smoothies that were $10 and he gave me the $20 back....another time John Gauger gave him $15 and got $23 back in change.....(my numbers may be off a bit, but needless to say, you get the idea). We were also amazed at how expensive groceries were in St. John. We paid $6 for a box of cheerios (and those were for the plain ones - the Honey Nut ones were $7!). A gallon of milk was $5, a 1/2 gallon of OJ - also $5.....etc. We bought groceries for our breakfast foods, but didn't make many other meals at "home." However, just being able to eat breakfast (and snacks) in really helped to keep costs down - even at the high grocery prices!

Can you tell I have a "baby bump"? It's there! I'm 20 weeks pregnant!!
Last day....getting ready to head home...

Although Jon & I were enjoying our vacation. We were also excited to head home to our Hannah!!! She spent the week with Grandma & Grandpa Woolley. We heard she had tons of fun and even got to go to Chuck E Cheese for the first time while we were away. Our flight home from Charlotte, NC got delayed because of weather, so instead of getting in at midnight, we got in about 3am...which made Hannah's 7am wake-up call really rough! But, this is the smiling face we saw when she ran into our room:

All smiles!!

And this is the face we got when we asked her to smile.